A Quickie with Noam Chomsky

Author: Nick Lindsley

Publish Date: 09.17.07

Nick Lindsley, senior in Architecture at Iowa State University, sent Noam Chomsky an e-mail asking for a short interview. Chomsky replied and said that he was too busy at that time, but he encouraged Nick to write back to him in a year. Lindsley did just that; he waited a year to the day and then sent an e-mail reminding Chomsky of his previous e-mail. Chomsky kept his word. This is the short e-mail communication that transpired.

Nick Lindsley: Can we expect any pleasant surprises in the Bush Administration’s foreign policy as the President’s term winds down?

Noam Chomsky: Your guess is as good as mine. My guess is that if there are surprises, they will be ominous ones. The clique for whom Bush is a figurehead is dangerous, desperate, and wounded. Everything they have tried has turned to disaster. And they had very far-reaching goals, not only for global domination but also for severely restricting domestic democracy and establishing a kind of elective executive dictatorship. A man-eating tiger in your backyard is something to worry about. A wounded one, even more so.

NL: Do you feel that our country will go into a sort of political shock trying to transition to a new administration?

NC: Only if the Bush clique proceeds beyond their current reactionary statist stance to something even more extreme — as is possible.

NL: Lastly, a question that has been weighing heavier and heavier on us for the past few years: is there still hope for the American Democracy?

NC: Plenty of hope. There have been worse periods before. Shameful as the Bush clique is, they haven’t reached the level of COINTELPRO, or Woodrow Wilson’s Red Scare, or other shameful moments of American history, from which there have been recoveries.